Viewpoints heart More With Less heart Understanding the Client Journey

Client journey — improve experiences and retain clients.

Creating your client journey map only costs the time you dedicate to it.

A client journey map helps you see your business from your customer’s perspective. The goal is to create a superior experience with your business, service and offer.

Analyzing how your customers or clients interact with your business should be a routine activity. Mapping that journey is the beginning of an important analysis aimed at improving customer satisfaction, retention and increasing efficiency.

Let’s look at a use-case that will help illustrate how journey mapping might come to life. The following example touches on key points of a specific client journey. Identifying all customer contact points is the first place to start to begin the exercise.

Beyond this, you’ll gain key insights to adapt and apply to your business systems, your team touchpoints and your operations in general.

You can improve efficiency, reduce costs and achieve the highest possible level of client success and satisfaction.

The example below highlights a B2B fintech firm, serving small business customers. Their flagship product is a loan offer that allows small business owners access to working capital.

Awareness Stage

Touchpoint: Online search, social media, or word-of-mouth.

Customer Persona: Small business owner (SBO) looking for capital.

Goals: Understand financing options and identify potential lenders.

Emotions: Curiosity and concerns about eligibility.

Research and Evaluation

Touchpoint: Visiting the fintech company's website.

Customer Persona: Informed SBO comparing financing solutions.

Goals: Learn about available financing products and compare interest rates and terms.

Emotions: Focused and seeking clarity.

Application Process

Touchpoint: Initiating the loan application online.

Customer Persona: Committed SBO ready to proceed.

Goals: Complete application accurately and provide required documentation.

Emotions: Hopeful and concerned about approval. Key Finding

Underwriting and Approval

Touchpoint: Waiting for application review.

Customer Persona: Anxious SBO.

Goals: Receive timely updates on application status and clear any additional requirements.

Emotions: Anticipation and concern.

Funding and Disbursement

Touchpoint: Receiving loan approval and funding.

Customer Persona: Relieved and grateful SBO. Key Finding

Goals: Access capital for business needs and understand repayment terms.

Emotions: Relief and gratitude.

Loan Management

Touchpoint: Accessing the fintech platform for account management.

Customer Persona: Actively managing the loan.

Goals: Set up repayment schedules and monitor loan status.

Emotions: Responsibility and satisfaction with transparency.

Support and Communication

Touchpoint: Receiving proactive communication from the fintech company.

Customer Persona: Engaged SBO seeking assistance.

Goals: Access customer support when needed and get answers to questions.

Emotions: Trust and loyalty.

Repayment and Completion

Touchpoint: Completing loan repayment.

Customer Persona: Satisfied and potentially repeat customer. Key Finding

Goals: Successfully pay off the loan and explore future financing options.

Emotions: Accomplishment and interest in additional services.

Feedback and Referral

Touchpoint: Request for feedback and reviews.

Customer Persona: Advocate for the fintech company.

Goals: Provide feedback and recommend the service to others.

Emotions: Satisfaction and willingness to promote.

This client journey map helps you visualize and understand the customer's experience at each stage of the process. You can use it to identify pain points, opportunities for improvement and discover areas where the company can provide additional value to its customers.

The takeaway.

Every client journey map is different, but the exercise itself is an instrumental process to improve your business and your client satisfaction overall. The journey map is an important step in a larger customer experience strategy with the aim to make your business operate more efficiently and improve customer retention.

Lovely People can help you complete your customer journey map, identify issues and implement solutions. Let’s talk.

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